First light at the park

After last night's debacle with Venus, tonight was a total success. Last night it finally cleared and I went out about 7:30 to catch a glimpse of Venus. I got the ETX all lined up, got Venus in the crosshairs and settled in for a good look. Just in time to see it disappear behind my neighbor's carport! Sigh.
Tonight was the regular night walk at the park. It wasn't clear, far from it, but I thought it might clear at dark like it did last night. So... I packed up my old kit bag and headed south. Melissa drew the short straw and led the party on their night walk while I got the scopes set up. I was optimistic and had both set up. Right on cue, Venus popped out about 6:30 followed shortly after by Jupiter. Oh boy! We're going to have fun. Five minutes later Venus and Jupiter both disappeared behind dark clouds. The clouds appeared just as the sun set and decided to stick around. Both Venus and Jupiter popped out periodically but never long enough to get the scope lined up. I gave up completely on the Celestron since there weren't any stars to line up on. The Orion 3" was at least agile enough to move into position when the opportunity presented. Jupiter was behaving badly and not only popped in and out of visibility, it was too high to reach with the alt-az mount, and the moons were all hiding. Eventually it got low enough to reach with the 3" and came out long enough to snag with the red dot finder. Once I got it centered and focused, all was well. I could see it almost 100% of the time, occasionally even spotting the 2 storm bands. Venus never did cooperate. About 7:30 the night walkers came in and I had a good time showing off Jupiter to about 12 park visitors, a nice mix of adults and kids. Note to self: drop the tripod a few inches and get a step stool for the little guys. Only the taller visitors were able to watch. Even with the clouds and no Galilean moons, everyone seemed pleased and wanted to come back later when it was clear. The night walk was successful too: screech owl, great horned, 3 coyotes, an armadillo, bats, and even a scorpion.
I need to spend some time with the Celestron to familiarize myself with its operation, even if its during daylight. I also need to tighten up the mount on the 3" orion. It's just too wobbly. The Celestron still needs a bolt for one of the tripod legs.
A good plan would be to set up the Celestron on some nice target like Jupiter and leave it, while using the 3" to quickly move to other targets of interest. The mount isn't a dob but it's not hard to move around.
All in all, not a bad night for 'first light'.